


The Greatest Gift Of All

by ni21



Category: One Piece
Genre: Birthday Fluff, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Pirate Cuddles, Surprise Party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27516166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ni21/pseuds/ni21
Summary: There is an air of secrecy aboard Sunny. Why? Because it's the Marimo's birthday and it's really hard to organise a surprise birthday party for a man that has a special gift to appear wherever he thinks he needs to be but also... What do you gift a man who is happy as long as he has a goal to work for, a bottle of sake and nice company?
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro & Everyone
Comments: 11
Kudos: 55





	The Greatest Gift Of All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Einfach_Antonia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Einfach_Antonia/gifts).



> Hallo and welcome everyone!
> 
> So actually I'm still on writing break because I'm a mess, but for Zoro's birthday, I thought I share this self-indulgent birthday fic, be warned of the unusually high fluff content. May cause cavities. 
> 
> Why is it gifted to someone if it's self-indulgent? Well, I can't just write a pure fluff fic and not give it to the "Queen Of Fluff On Probation", now can I?
> 
> Please note, everything you see is platonic, everything you see is friendship. Except what you want to see shippy. If you can see your ship and like it, yeah I intended to write that xD

"Do you mind company?" she asked as she stuck her head through the hatch to the crow's nest. As all of them had expected, he just grunted an approval that didn't cause him any pause in the counting of his reps.

The crew had unanimously decided that it would be her job to guide him as she and Jinbei were the only ones who weren't prone to accidentally start an argument and have the swordsman take off in a huff or a fight. They didn't need any of that now. Not this year too.. And, unlike Jinbei it was not unusual for her to join him up here, away from the ruckus of the Crew.

There definitely was a ruckus, because by now they all knew that silence would alert the fierce protector in him, would cause him to investigate.

They had taken precautions this year. A lot of precautions and she could still hear Nami's exasperated sigh in her mind that it shouldn't be so hard to surprise someone that stupid.

They all knew he wasn't stupid. Simple definitely but not stupid. Even though she was sure a lot of the others underestimated the fact that growing up in a dojo made him one of the few in this crew that actually had any form of formal education.

Of course, she wasn't presumptuous enough to assume that formal education decided intelligence. It correlated because it may give access to the potential that has already been there, but she would never call her captain stupid either and that was one of the few things friends and foes alike seemed to find a certain consensus. So, in all seriousness, who was she to talk about intelligence? It was a mere construct and probably had nothing to do with how difficult it was to surprise the man currently sweating and grunting under his strenuous exercise.

What actually made it difficult was probably more his battle-honed instincts and ironic as it may be, his sense of direction. He always knew when people were trying to hide things from him and he always ended up where he needed to be no matter all the wrong turns he took along the way. So in recent years, it had happened more than once that he'd pop up right the moment a present was being wrapped or a birthday dinner was prepared, without even intending to.

So this year they had taken things into account. They had established a routine. Over the past weeks, she'd come to him regularly to read while he was working out and she always took care to make clones on deck to interact with the rest of the crew so he wouldn't get suspicious should his Haki pick up on her now investigating the progress of the preparations.

They hadn't bought gifts at the last harbour but had provided a list to their allies to pick things up, because it was not possible to hide things from him. He would stumble over them eventually and by now they all knew he could sniff out sake, good or bad like a bloodhound. No, they wouldn't make that mistake again either.

A clone came to life Infront of the kitchen and she followed the ecstatic invitation their chef sang out to her. The kitchen was a mess, uncharacteristically so. Usually, Sanji kept it pristine, but she could see the chaos and could almost smell the depression fighting against the pure happiness Chopper exuded from the kitchen table surrounded by empty bowls of experimental fillings.

"Are you making progress?" she asked despite the chef’s sunken eyes and generally unkempt appearance.

"It's so good, Robin! So sweet and delicious but it's beans but it's so sweet!" Chopper called excitedly, waving a spoon.

So that was the problem.

"It's hopeless, Robin-chwan. The dumbass has no taste, how can I make a cake for him?" Sanji asked, despair and defeat dripping in his voice, "why can't I make a cake for you, my sweet sweet angel?"

She laughed. He was always so overly dramatic. With a reassuring tap on his shoulder, she moved around him to look at what he had. A muddy green sponge cooling on a rack. Probably slightly bitter and grassy from the tea they had gotten from Wano. White buttery cream that even to her smelled intensely of sake, red bean paste which most likely was the source of the chef's frustration and a bowl pale brown crunch which, going by the rest of the attempts, was probably roasted soybeans.

It was adorable if nothing else. Sanji took so much care to show everyone how little he liked the swordsman and here he was whipping up a cake that encompassed all he was.

"I'm sure he'll love it," she said, "but you know, Sanji, I'm not too fond of sweets either."

Sanji knew that. She was well aware, but it was no secret that the chef got little productive when he got caught up in his rivalry with the other man.

"What are you reading?" Zoro asked her in the crow's nest and she let her clone disappear to the praise of her impeccable taste and unparalleled beauty to fully focus on the man wiping down his sweaty chest before guzzling down his workout drink, spilling half of it over himself. One could get weak at a sight like that and she was sure if it wasn't his birthday Nami would be right there to snap a picture she could sell to the next best horny fan, no matter how much she complained about his constant flexing.

With a finger to mark the page, she closed the book and showed him the cover. She couldn't help the chuckle at his visible cringing. She had to admit, the cover art  _ was _ a bit much.

"'To Tame The Pachycephalosaurus'. It's an interracial romance novel highlighting the difficulty of coming to terms with your biological reactions in a culture tha-"

"Cheesy dinosaur romance porn is what I'm hearing."

"Sure, if that's what you want to call it," she answered with a chuckle and was rewarded with a hearty laugh. 

"Don't let Ero-cook see that you read crap like that, he'd get a heart attack."

She hummed, "Why yes, you're right, that would be very unfortunate. We'd have to starve at sea. We might even have to resort to cannibalism."

"Good thing we have emergency food supply," he concluded and resumed his workout.

As fun as it was to creep people out with her sense of humour, it was always a delight to have someone indulge with her.

Opening her book again she contemplated whether or not to read a few lines out loud as she would do sometimes but she did not want him to up and leave while she bloomed another clone in their library.

"Do you think he suspects anything?" Nami asked even before the petals settled. For conning as many people as she had in her life, she really didn't cope all that well with the fear of being found out, did she?

"I don't think he does."

"Good. Moss-for-brains really has no business making this so difficult for us," she ranted, even though the only ones making it difficult were them. It was fun to plan and scheme behind his back but they all knew he'd be equally happy just drinking the night away with them like any other day. If anything it was probably them that were trying to prove themselves.

"Have you heard anything from the others?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed and Robin could see the excitement bubbling, "team ostrich is en route and will reach destination ahead of time. Team winter is running late but that's fine as we don't want him to sniff out the parcel before the playdate."

She couldn't help but laugh. they were so adorable, taking their mission so seriously.

"Don't laugh Robin. I know you're guarding him, but we both know he has a history of randomly appearing and disappearing in the middle of a conversation, we can't risk it!" Nami pleaded, her fingers gripping into her clone's blouse.

If she didn't know better she'd assume it was a mild to severe form of mania taking hold of their navigator. She made a mental note to inform Chopper after he was done playing sweetness indicator for Sanji, it wouldn't do for their navigator to succumb to madness. They wouldn't want to get lost at sea, lest insanity would consume all of them. She hummed as she disappeared from the library. Maybe cannibalism was an inevitable fate after all?

She watched their birthday boy over the edge of her pages, listened to his strenuous counting. He was content like that just steadily working towards his goal, one swing of the inhuman weight at a time. He was content being surrounded by them, too. Their happiness was his happiness. She would make another mental note to let Sanji know to get a huge slab of meat for Luffy too, but she was sure he knew. They all knew Luffy's happiness was top priority and his joy when coming eye to eye with meat was only rivalled by Zoro's own joy hugging sake to his chest.

One unobtrusive eye bloomed on Sunny's railing. Luffy was laughing with the fishing rod in his hands, while Usopp showed an impeccable imitation of Sanji kicking them both out the kitchen. With a soft chuckle, she let the eye poof from existence, not daring to linger around for too long as she wouldn't want to garner Luffy's attention.

Instead, she bloomed another clone in Franky's workshop.

"How is the pop-up arena goi-" she started but was stopped by one of the shipwrights huge hands in front of her face followed by the little hand coming out to lay one delicate finger against her lips.

"Shhhh," Franky said, his eyes wide before he crouched down next to her, raising the other giant hand to shield them from nonexistent listeners. "We don't say that word here. The playground is coming along nicely and Jinbei already brought the bulk of it to destination." He explained in a whisper that was louder than her normal volume. She laughed.

"I see. I have full faith that it will withstand even the most intense play and will keep the guardians safe. According to Nami, the ostrich is on its way, its team will be able to help the final construction before we arrive. Winter will come late this year," she whispered back in the same volume and with the same tone of conspiracy.

" _ Oww! _ " he howled, all secrecy forgotten, " _ suuuuper _ !"

"Why don't you read that crap to me, like you normally do?" Zoro asked in the crow's nest and her clone disappeared from the workshop.

She gave him a gentle smile. "To be quite honest I'm afraid this is nothing special. I enjoy the series about the pirate and his doctor boyfriend much more, unfortunately, the author seems to have taken a break from them. However, in a recent critique, I've read that her new series about a psychology student, trying to accommodate his love for the young surgeon  _ and  _ the policewoman is basically based on the sa-"

"Ok, no, I'm good," he interrupted her, picking up another weight for his training.

Turning the page she chuckled, he would turn a wonderful shade of crimson when he'd unwrap her present at the party tonight.

It wasn't that she particularly wanted to embarrass him, but what could you gift a person who needed nothing for his happiness but a good fight, his friends and a crate full of sake?

Actually, it was simple; you arranged a meeting with the one person he always itched to fight and for friends to visit the home island of Sake to ask the forever indebted regent to sell you the best sake they had and invite the few actual friends he'd made along the way. And if you went to such lengths as contacting royalty, then you really deserve to poke some fun at the man. 

She saw the tiny sliver of land in front of them about two hours later and gave Nami in the library a thumbs up. 

It took another hour of silent reading and more or less silent exercise until she heard the loud clutter and cursing from the library. 

Zoro halted his movements instantly. Barbell still raised, he slightly turned to look at her, eye going wide as he no doubt saw the land clearly visible behind her.

"Fuck," he said, barbell slipping from his hands and thundering onto the floor at the same time both of them winced at the screeching of his name coming from the lawn deck.

"You better go, Kenshi-san," she laughed, closing her book. She really had to commend Nami, her acting was on point if the paleness of his face was an indication.

A slow gulp and a nod, and not for the first time she was in awe at how such a delicate woman struck fear like that in men that were called monsters around the globe. Fear of electrocution, if she had to guess.

Slowly and deliberately, he climbed down instead of jumping like he usually did as to not garner more wrath than necessary. It was almost cute, she thought as she followed slowly with her wings. 

"Well hurry up, damn it! Can't you see there's marines anchoring?" Nami demanded and while landing right beside her, it was hard not to see the excitement bubbling inside her, "get ready to fight dumbass!"

He did. The moment his boots touched the ground she could see the casual tension in his shoulders, his legs spread to hold his position which was exactly what he needed as their rubbery captain rocketed into him from the other side of the ship, almost shooting both of them off of it. But their swordsman stood broad and held his position, his eye wide in confusion as the rest of the crew crashes into them with a laughing chorus of "Happy Birthday"

She could feel ribs poking into her chest, an elbow in her side. For all the planning they had done, they might have to consider a hugging order for the next birthday. Because no matter how happy she was in this giant pirate pile, Franky and Jinbei should not be on top of it. 

Weight lifted and her lungs filled with air and bubbly laughter as she rolled off Chopper and Luffy, who both still clung to a still very confused and now also breathless swordsman.

"I'm so glad it's finally over it was so had to not say anything I knew they wanted to surprise you bit it was so hard because I like talking to you remember when I ate that bad fish and couldn't poop for days that's what it was like but it was weeks!" their captain told him, voice full of excitement and his smile so bright that it melted all the doubt etched on Zoro's face and brought out an answering smile from him that was just as bright.

Usopp, spooning them all from the other side, laughed that loud laugh he always had when he was ready to tell a lie. "That's because you're not a professional, Luffy, it was super easy to keep it secret. You just need more practice," he said through a bright smile and Chopper immediately burst laughing, telling everyone that he'd supplied Usopp with tea to sleep better.

"Oh yeah?" Usopp shot back, "keeping quiet was only easy for you because you got to stuff your face all day!"

And while Nami muttered under her breath how Luffy had even found out in the first place since they had made it a point to keep their plans just as much a secret from him as from Zoro, Zoro sat up. He peeled loops of rubbery arms from him while Chopper started to giggle, telling him how great his day had been because Sanji let him taste all the fillings from his cake since he woke up, as much as he wanted, and he was so happy about it.

Looking around she saw the fondness in all their eyes and she was sure that if Zoro knew how absolutely adorable they were right now he'd brush them off and deny it all.

Sanji lit a cigarette with a silent curse and handed a skeletonized arm to their musician before straightening his tie, but even he couldn't hide just how adorable he found the scene as strings of Brook's new Shamisen came to life.

They were adorable in their rivalry, even though she knew she could never let them know what their constant bickering did to their fans around the world. She’d even heard marines gossip about their alleged relationship and she had been asked to confirm it more than once with her friends in the Revolutionary Army.

"Yo, shithead, you better like that damn cake and don't let anything go to waste, I don’t care if you don’t like it!" Sanji grumbled, thrusting a plate with one perfect slice of layered cake in the direction of the frankly adorable mess their friend had become.

Still sitting on the floor, Zoro took the plate and just as he’d heard the first tunes of the Shamisen, his eye went wide as his lips closed around the fork with his first bite and it was enough for Sanji. With a satisfied grin, he left to distribute the rest of the cake, probably ignoring Zoro for the sheer cuteness of his cake-filled cheeks. Swallowing Zoro turned to Chopper at his side, apologized that it wasn’t sweet enough for his taste and laughed as their doctor broke into his little happy dance, assuring that Zoro being considerate didn’t make him happy at all.

“Dumbass, it’s your birthday cake, it’s supposed to fit your taste,” Nami interfered with an unusually soft smack over the green head. “Also I’d argue a certain doctor who keeps lecturing us over unhealthy habits had more than enough sugar for a day.”

Any more complaints got stuck in their navigator’s throat as she was pulled down to sit on his lap and smothered in a hug, even while Luffy was still wrapped tightly around Zoro’s chest. “Thanks for coordinating the dumbasses, Nami,” he chuckled against her and Robin was sure he’d be charged extra for the cake crumbs he got in her hair.

“Don’t thank me yet, your actual present is waiting on that island,” Nami explained with that air of mystery that was completely lost on him as his eye lit up with excitement and boyish joy.

“The marine ship?” he asked.

“The marine ship,” Nami confirmed before wiggling free and leaving for cake after one pat of his still sweaty hair, but for once she didn’t seem to mind.

Robin had spent a lot of time with Zoro the last few weeks, just to get him used to her presence so he would not get suspicious when she’d have to keep him away from the others while they were busy with preparations, and even before she’d spent much time with him. She’d like to say she knew him like no other but considering their captain still wrapped around him despite food being set on the table and the no doubt delicious cake with all the flavours chosen specifically for him… His rival waiting on the island in the back for a fight… They all knew him intimately, but she personally knew that that soft pat to his head had broken him. One more fluffy, heartfelt declaration or show of love and he’d up and leave and of course, good friend that she was, she could not let that happen. No. It had been her job to keep him at the right place at the right time and it was not done yet.

She took the parcel from the arm sprouting next to her and crouched down to his eye level.

“I hope it’s exciting, Kenshi-san,” she teased with a smile, knowing full well excitement was not what would motivate him the coming seconds. She could see the weariness in his gaze, of course, he was suspicious when she called him that now. Slowly and deliberately he pulled at the ribbon and tugged at the paper, and adorable crimson flushed across his face the moment his brain had realized what his hands had unveiled. With a nervous side-eye to Chopper, he pressed the book against his chest.

“For fuck’s sake, Robin!” he choked and he himself was probably not sure whether or not he thought this gift to be funny or not, but at least his fluff tolerance seemed good again.

“Fufufufu, don’t worry, my actual present will also be waiting on that island, a duel between a marine and the soon-to-be Best Swordsman In The World needs an audience of renown, after all, even if it’s just for fun,” she hinted, but just like with Nami, realisation settled instantly.

“Thank you,” he said, even while their captain started laughing behind him.

“Shishishishishishi, a book? That’s a silly present, Robin.”

A fist came down hard on the captain’s head. Much harder than it had with Zoro earlier and Nami crossed her arms in front of her chest, glaring down on him. Still looking menacing even while she had frosting on her cheeks and crumbs in her hair.

“You’re one to talk, where’s your present if you’ve known about his birthday all along?” she demanded but Luffy only laughed and with a shrug of his shoulders said: “I already gave him all of you.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Ghost for beta reading... damn, one of these days I should write a fic for her...


End file.
